Web Consultancy UK

A little while back I attended Brand Republic’s email marketing conference, and very useful it was too.  We had some cracking industry speakers and I have to say I learnt a lot from it.  Now, if I was the greedy sort, I’d keep all that lovely best practise all to myself.  But I’m not.  So here’s a load of best practise video footage Brand republic kindly sent me this morning, that features advice on:

• What is the business case for email in today’s turbulent economy?
• Should email marketers continue mailing non-responsive data?
• What style of content is most effective in generating ultimate sales?

Enjoy

E-marketing conference speaker notes

Oh, and whilst I’m at it, check out for more of the same, but in blog form, by clicking Emarketing best practise.

Now this is going to sound cruel, but I was actually quite dissapointed at the poor quality of the Email marketing products I saw at TFM&A yesterday.

The combination of companies being pushed to provide accountable ROI on every marketing campaign, and marketing budgets dropping faster than you can say sub-prime, seems to be driving everyone to E-marketing as the holy grail fix all solution.

Which should be a good thing.  Shouldn’t it?

Well, yes.  After all, we all know that the cost of sending an email is a fraction of the cost of sending a tradional DM piece, and that once an email has left the building, smart marketers embed java script into their websites to enable them to watch the customer journey from start to finish (God bless cookies).  Add the fact that it’s an almost immediate fix that has been proven to work time and time again, and you’ve got one of the strongest channels available.

So, why the sad face?

With so many ways to do email marketing well, it frustrates me to see it being done badly.  The proliferation of email marketing companies and products has resulted in a huge quality divide.  Those companies that provide a decent product , such as Pure or Campaign Master really sting you financially for the added features, more than your average SME can afford (but if you have the cash, I’d still recommend them).  Whilst lower down the scale, the me-too’s are trying to replicate the big guns, but without the customer services or functionality. If you think there’s nothing worse than receiving a poorly built email, think how frustrating it is for the poor marketer who’s trying to communicate with you but who’s stuck using inferior software!

What should you look for in your E-marketing solution?

1.  It needs to be user friendly.  So many HTML solutions are only developed for people that understand HTML.  Give me an FCK WYSIWYG editor anyday, that way anyone in your marketing department can use the system.  Seriously, if you can’t train a colleague on how to use the software within an hour, there’s something wrong!

2.  You need your own clean IP address.  If you then dirty it by sending out spam then I’m afraid you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.  But if you’re sharing a box with the guy who sell Viagra for a living, you’re going to get tarnished with the same brush as him.  Which frankly, ain’t fair!

3.  It needs to have a spam checker.  Most decent providers will link into Apache or an equivelent.  It’s Open source, so there really is no excuse.

4.  It should be feature rich.  Dynamic population, best time of day sending, adaptive subject headers, etc. all  make a difference to read rates.  I regularly see a difference of 15% open rate, just based on subject headers.

5. It needs to have advanced reporting.  Not just who read it, and who didn’t.  But who read it, forwarded it to a frind, clicked on a link, and then went on to buy a £2.99 pair of socks.  If it can’t tell you what your customer’s had for breakfast, then it’s not doing it’s job right.

This would be a great time to plug my own software - but that would be a cheap shot.  So instead I’ll leave you with these top tips for writing quality E-shots that people will read, and a word of warning,  try before you buy.  Most providers worth their salt will let you have a free (or greatly reduced) trial of their software.  Take advantage of this.  If after a week you’re still having difficulties - shop elseware!